Bridging of expansion joints in roadways of bridges, streets, runways and the like

ABSTRACT

The edges of the expansion joint between two roadway sections are terminated with adjoining edge profiles, respectively. One or more longitudinal retaining members pass parallel to said edge profiles and are connected to the latter and to each other by means of flexible sealing members. Each retaining member is fixedly connected with two parallel supporting traverses disposed in the direction of the roadway in a recess below the edge profiles. Each of said traverses slidably rests on two sliders supported on fixed mounting plates. In addition to the system of elastic sealing members, a system of elastic spring members is provided. The latter members act between the traverses and the edges of the expansion joint. By the combined elastic systems, the retaining members (if more than 1) are approximately equally spaced from one another. The retaining members (as a unit) are held approximately in the middle between the edge profiles in any position of the expansion joint.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Waldemar Kmter Forsbach, Germany 211 Appl. No 754,806 [22] Filed Aug. 23, 1968 [45] Patented Sept. I4, I971 [73] Assignee Friedriehsohne Maurer Stahlbau, Munich, Germany [54] BRIDGING 0F EXPANSION JOINTS IN ROADWAYS 0F BRIDGES, STREETS, RUNWAYS AND THE LIKE 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 94/18, 14/ 16 [51] lnLCL EOIcll/l0 [50] Field olSeareh 94/18; 52/396; 14/16 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,482,492 12/1969 94/18 3,479,933 11/1969 94/18 3,113,493 12/1963 94/18 3,245,328 4/1966 94/18 3,430,544 3/1969 94/18 Primary Examiner-Jacob L. Nackenoff AltomeyNolte and Nolte ABSTRACT: The edges of the expansion joint between two roadway sections are tenninated with adjoining edge profiles, respectively. One or more longitudinal retaining members pass parallel to said edge profiles and are connected to the latter and to each other by means of flexible sealing members. Each retaining member is fixedly connected with two parallel supporting traverses disposed in the direction of the roadway in a recess below the edge profiles. Each of said traverses slidably rests on two sliders supported on fixed mounting plates. In addition to the system of elastic sealing members, a system of elastic spring members is provided. The latter members act between the traverses and the edges of the expansion joint. By the combined elastic systems, the retaining members (if more than 1) are approximately equally spaced from one another. The retaining members (as a unit) are held approximately in the middle between the edge profiles in any position of the expansion joint.

PATENTED SEP] 41% 3, 04 322 sum 1 OF 2 INVENIOR WALDEMAR KOST ER BY 77% r 77% ATTORNEYS BRIDGING OF EXPANSION JOINTS IN ROADWAYS F BRIDGES, STREETS, RUNWAYS AND THE LIKE The present invention relates in general to roadway construction.

In particular, the present invention relates to a bridging of expansion joints between two separate sections of roadways of bridges, streets, runways and the like.

In known bridging structures for expansion joints in roadways, the retaining members have support traverses, disposed to slidably rest on mounting plates and be held thereon by residual stres, According to the invention two opposed systems of elastic members are provided. One of these systems may be provided by the known sealing members between edge profiles and retaining members. In one embodiment of the added system (FIGS. 1 and 2), advantageously, the resilient elements may be formed as rubber pushing blocks which are linked to the traverses and the edge profiles of the expansion joints under vertical residual stress. If the bridging has a plurality of retaining members the traverses rigidly connected to the retaining members can rest on supporting beams and be slidable longitudinally of the roadway (FIG. 3).

Between traverses adjacent to one another pushing resilient blocks may be arranged which cause the aforementioned centering adjustment of the retaining members toward each other, and are preferably provided as rubber pushing blocks. The resilient elements may also be constructed as rubber compression blocks which are mounted between correspondingly arranged bearing surfaces. It is also possible (although not shown herein) to provide the conventional metal or metalrubber spring arrangement as resilient elements. In order to produce a centering pushing force between two adjacent traverses (FIG. a projection may be provided on one of the traverses which is movable between two compression springs mounted to the other traverse. The arrangement may be simplified (FIGS. 3 and 4), in that between two adjacent traverses only one compression spring acting in the longitudinal direction thereof is provided, the compression spring being thus arranged that in a released position of said spring the sealing profiles between the retaining members are pressed together and exert by themselves a flexible force which causes the centering of the traverses instead of the second compression spring.

The resilient elements may have projections (not shown) I for limiting their elastic displacement pitch in a manner known per se. Such projections are disposed in order to prevent damage of the resilient elements because of overstram.

Embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of a bridging for expansion joints with one retaining member passing between two edge profile members;

FIG. 2 shows a plan view partially broken, of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a further embodiment with five retaining members;

FIG. 4 shows a plan view on line IV-IV of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 shows the arrangement of resilient elements between a number of traverses.

In detail, FIG. I shows a bridging for expansion joints between the spaced sections 1 and 2 of a roadway, variable in distance to one another. The bridging is formed of two elongated edge profile members 3 and 4 as well as an elongated retaining member 5 passing therebetween in a parallel direction to the profiles 3, 4. Between the retaining member 5 and the two edge profiles 3 and 4 flexible sealing profile members 6 and 7 are disposed and held by member 5. The retaining member 5 is rigidly connected to at least two traverses 8 disposed in the direction of the roadway in a recess below the expansion joint, one of which is shown in the drawing. Each traverse 8 slidably rests on two sliders 9 and 10 supported on mounting plates 11 and 12. Between the outwardly directed flanges of respective edge profiles 3 and 4 and the traverse 8,

elastic elements 13 and 14 are disposed which when the width of the expansion joint changes, exert oppositely directed pushing forces on the traverse 8 and thus keep the latter in its centering position between the two parts of the roadway variable in distance. The elastic or resilient elements 13 and 14 may be formed as rubber pushing blocks which exert at the same time a force directed on the fixed mounting plates 11 and 12 so that the traverse rests at any time on the sliders 9 and 10 under residual stress.

FIG. 2 showing a plan view to FIG. 1 contains the same reference numerals. The respective sections of the roadway are drawn in a broken view.

FIG. 3 shows the bridging of an expansion joint between two spaced sections 15 and 16 of a roadway variable in distance to one another, with two edge profile members 17 and I8 between which five retaining members 19 and six flexible sealing profiles 20 are disposed. Each retaining member 19 is rigidly connected to at least two traverses 21 of which only one is shown in the drawings. The traverses 21 slidably rest on two supporting beams 22 and 23 for sliding support, generally similar to that shown at 9 and 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIGS. 3 and 4, resilient elements 30' are disposed between the various traverses 21 respectively. Resilient elements are also provided between the outermost ones of these traverses and the road edge structures l5, 16 as shown at 30. These elastic elements 30 and 30 are disposed to act as shear and lateral compression springs, in lieu of the corresponding elements shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 which act as shear and vertical compression springs.

FIG. 5 shows parts of three traverses 21 with spring elements interposed therebetween. The spring elements are formed as rubber compression springs 32 mounted to projections 33, A projection 34 of the adjacent traverse 21' extends between the two rubber compression springs 32 directed toward each other so that the thus formed spring element causes centering pushing forces between the adjacent traverses.

The above embodiment as shown in FIG. 5 illustrates impressively the basic idea of the present invention, which consists in applying the elastic forces of two opposing systems of spring elements or the like to the traverses and/or the retaining members, rigidly connected therewith. In FIGS. 1 to 4 one system of elastic forces is represented by the flexible sealing profile members 6, 7, or 20, respectively, between the retaining members or the edge profiles, respectively; these sealing members causing decreasing forces when the expansion joint expands; and the second system is represented by the elastic resilient elements 13, 14, or 30, respectively, the elastic forces of which will increase when the joint expands. In FIG. 5, however, one system is represented by the upper left and the upper right compression spring elements 32', and the second by the lower left and the lower right elements 32, the former system causing decreasing elastic forces and the latter causing increasing elastic forces, when the joint expands. With the embodiment according to FIG. 5 the elastic flexible sealing profile members 6, 7, or 20, of FIG. 1 to 4 could be replaced by, for example, rubber sheets, serving only as sealing elements and not causing elastic forces.

All discussed arrangements are adapted to fulfill the objects of the invention, particularly to keep the retaining members in the middle of the expansion joint under nearly constant forces independently of the degree of expansion of the expansion joint in order to withstand accelerating and braking forces of passing vehicles.

I claim:

1. A bridging of expansion joints in roadways of bridges, streets, runways and the like, comprising edge profile members adjoining the edges of spaced roadway sections in a direction transverse to the direction of the roadway; at least one retaining member extending through the expansion joint in a direction substantially parallel to that of said edge profile members; elastic sealing members between said edge profile members and said retaining members; support traverse members arranged substantially parallel to each other in the direction of the roadway, each retaining member being rigidly connected with at least two different ones of said support traverse members so that each retaining member has independent, stable support, the traverse members being slidably received in a recess below the edge profile members; and elastic spring members acting on each traverse separately, with forces which increase when the forces exerted upon the retaining members by the elastic sealing means decrease, and vice versa, to center each retaining member between two adjacent ones of said edge profile and retaining members. 

1. A bridging of expansion joints in roadways of bridges, streets, runways and the like, comprising edge profile members adjoining the edges of spaced roadway sections in a direction transverse to the direction of the roadway; at least one retaining member extending through the expansion joint in a direction substantially parallel to that of said edge profile members; elastic sealing members between said edge profile members and said retaining members; support traverse members arranged substantially parallel to each other in the direction of the roadway, each retaining member being rigidly connected with at least two different ones of said support traverse members so that each retaining member has independent, stable support, the traverse members being slidably received in a recess below the edge profile members; and elastic spring members acting on each traverse separately, with forces which increase when the forces exerted upon the retaining members by the elastic sealing means decrease, and vice versa, to center each retaining member between two adjacent ones of said edge profile and retaining members.
 2. A bridging according to claim 1 wherein said spring members are of rubber.
 3. A bridging according to claim 1 wherein said spring members are shear springs.
 4. A bridging according to claim 1 wherein said spring members are compression springs.
 5. A bridging according to claim 4 wherein each traverse member has a projection thereon and an adjacent traverse has a pair of said compression springs thereon, acting in opposite directions on said projection. 